Maiden Of Chaos
by Guardians of the Maiden
Summary: The servers are the seven chaos… but whom do they serve? The mystery of the chaos emeralds is slowly unraveling around them. Will Sonic, Shadow, and the others be able to survive from what they find? Or is the end closer than they think… ON HOLD-REWRITING
1. Prologue: The Beginning of the End

**First, I would like to apologize for the following Author's Note. This is the longest it will ever be. I just need to explain a few things first.**

**This story has been in my head for over five years and I just had to write it. It is my first and will probably be my last.**

**WARNINGS: **

**Though I normally despise them, there are quite a few OCs in this story. Over 10 I believe. Only 2 play a major role (one being the villain) and the others will only appear when necessary to the story.**

**Character pasts will be screwed with, though it will mostly be just Knuckles' since he has the greatest connection to the emeralds (surprisingly, Shadow's will stay true to the games). The others are nothing major so deal with it. I also will try to keep the characters in character as much as possible. I apologize if they stray a little.**

**Though this is not mainly a romance story, there will be some fluff. As of right now, all couples are undecided, though I will probably stick to the generic ones.**

**My grammar may be off at times and I apologize. I'm not the best writer but I am trying my best. I am only human so I do make mistakes now and then.**

**Feedback would be nice. All kinds of reviews are appreciated. Good ones, bad ones, and even constructive criticism. I don't care if you like my story or not, I'm just writing it to finish what I started years ago.**

**Disclaimer: (I am only doing this once. I will put up a proper disclaimer for all my individual characters once they are named in the story, though they may appear before then.) I DO NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any related characters or story plots. They belong to SEGA. I do however own the plot to this story and any other characters and ideas that do not belong to SEGA. **

Maiden Of Chaos

'_The servers are the seven chaos. Chaos is power. Power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the chaos. Chaos will awaken the source from its slumber. The source is life. The source is death. The source will bring about the end…'_

~Prologue: The Beginning of the End

The skies grew dark over Angel Island as storm clouds began to set in. All around on the island animals of all kind could sense the approaching storm and quickly began to take shelter. That is, all except for one.

The first drop of rain fell from the imposing clouds, making its way to the surface below. It made contact with a small 'plop' and scattered upon impact. Knuckles' eyes opened as the cold water droplet hit his sensitive nose. He turned his head to the sky, soon becoming pelted with more droplets as he watched the looming clouds overhead. It was times like these that he wished he owned an umbrella.

Usually the weather was nice on Angel Island. It was fairly warm and sunny most of the time, being that the island was floating high in the air amongst the cloud formations. When he was sitting in the warm sunlight with the gentle breeze blowing across his face, he didn't mind his job at all. It was that rare occasion when clouds would pass over the island and bring about a rainstorm, leaving him wet, cold, and miserable as he guarded the Master Emerald. This was one of those days.

The rain had now begun to fall harder and it didn't seem like it would end anytime soon. But Knuckles just sat there on the shrine trying to ignore the hundreds of icy cold droplets dancing on his flaming red fur. He sighed rather loudly, knowing that there was no way he was going to be able to continue his nap now. His amethyst eyes began to wander and soon came upon an image on the horizon.

The silhouette of Station Square could be seen approaching on the horizon. He saw the first sight of it a few days ago and since then the island had slowly been moving towards the bustling city. Knuckles realized it had been a while since he had been to the city. Not that he minded of course. There were too many people and wasn't enough nature as far as he was concerned. He preferred his solitude type of lifestyle, guarding his rock on his island. However, going into the city would give the echidna a chance to see his friends again. It had been a while since Knuckles had seen Sonic or the others. The last time he had seen the blue speedster had been when Dr. Eggman attacked the city a few months ago and Sonic and Tails had flown over to Angel Island asking for help. And after that battle had ended, he said his goodbyes and made his way back to finish his duty.

The last of the echidnas turned around and came face to face with the Master Emerald. Even in the dark and dreary weather, its still glowed with the same radiance. The rain that fell upon it and rebounded reflected the color, making each droplet look like a tiny emerald itself.

Sure guarding the Master Emerald wasn't the most exciting thing in the world, but it was his duty and he was proud to do it. A small smile crept onto Knuckles' face as he placed a hand on the emerald. He could feel an immense power flowing within it. Of course it would have this much power, being the only thing able to stop the Chaos Emeralds.

Slowly, the guardian took his hand off the emerald and turned back around, sliding down to a sitting position with his back against the jewel. He then decided that he would take some time off to go visit his friends once the city was in range with the island. It would be fun to mess around with Sonic like he did in the old days. He could also keep an eye on that thieving bat to make sure that she wouldn't try to steal his emerald again.

The rain soon began to lighten up and was now nothing more than a very light drizzle. Knuckles closed his eyes, finding this light rain to be much more bearable as he tried to resume his nap. His thoughts began to fade as sleep approached the tired guardian. Alas, sleep never came. He was rudely awoken by a large shatter and his back making contact with the hard surface of the emerald's alter. Amethyst eyes quickly shot open as he jumped up, quickly turning around to check on the Master Emerald. His eyes grew wide as he saw a pile of emerald green shard scattered about his feet. Only a small fraction of the shards that made p the emerald were there though. The rest were blown away to parts unknown by the sheer force of what ever had hit it. Knuckles quickly began to try to figure out exactly how this had happened. He had been awake a few seconds ago and he had no sensed any other presence on the island other than his own. It couldn't have been the doctor or that bat girl. Could some other figure have appeared on the island without him knowing? And how did they do this much damage to the emerald? It had been shattered before, but never this drastically.

Knuckles soon lost his time to try to figure out what happened as he felt a hand roughly grasp him around the neck. Instinctively his own hands latched around the one cutting off his airflow and he tried to pry it off. He poured all his strength into releasing those crushing fingers from around his neck, but even with all his strength he couldn't even make them budge. The world around him soon began to grow dark as he began to feel himself slipping out of consciousness. Before he was about to pass out a deep voice from behind him hissed into his ear.

"…._Where is it?....."_

Knuckles felt the fingers belonging to the voice slowly ease up on his throat. He still could not break free, but it allowed him to breath a little better. The echidna only wheezed as he took this opportunity to take in more air and fill his lungs, completely ignoring the question that had been directed at him. Just as he began to get his breathing back to normal, the hand around his throat squeezed tightly as the voice hissed again, only this time it was louder.

" …_WHERE IS IT?!..."_

This time the guardian felt the warm breath of the creature on the side of his face and it sent a chill up his spine. He struggled with his breathing once again as he attempted to answer the being.

"…wha....are….yo…talkin…..bout……."

Apparently the creature wasn't too happy with Knuckles' response. Red fur collided with the ground and his face made contact with stone. He got a sudden relief when he felt the oppressor's hand remove itself from his neck, but soon found more discomfort as a foot was forcefully placed down upon his back, close enough to his neck so that he was unable to lift up his head and face the other.

"_DON'T MESS WITH ME GUARDIAN!" _it shouted_, "WHERE ARE YOU HIDING IT?"_

Knuckles desperately tried to get up, but was unsuccessful with every try. "I don't know what you're talking about." The echidna replied with his face in the ground. He was really starting to get annoyed with this creep.

"_THE SOURCE!"_ is shouted as it dug it's heel deeper into Knuckle's back. This caused said echidna to grunt in pain. _"WHERE ARE YOU HIDING THE SOURCE?"_

Knuckles knew he wasn't the brightest guy around, but this guy was really starting to confuse him. What the heck was he talking about? The source? The source of what? And what made this loony think that he even knew where it was?

He felt the weight above him shift again as more pressure was applied to the foot, digging it deeper and deeper into his spine. This time, Knuckles let out a cry of pain as he began to fell the bones in his vertebrae begin to shift and crack. "_Don't mess with me guardian…" _the voiced hissed again. Knuckles felt the warm breath on his neck again as he struggled to try to get out of this situation. "_Tell me where you have hidden the source before I force it out of you…" _More pressure was applied again and this time a sickening crack was heard. Knuckles cries out in agony as he felt some of his bones begin to break. He clenched his jaw together in hopes of suppressing some of the pain.

"I… don't know… what… you're talking… about." Knuckles managed to get out as he tried his best to ignore the pain.

A deep chuckle was heard from behind him as he felt a sharp claw brush up against his cheek. It dug in, causing the echidna to wince as he felt his own warm blood ooze out of the wound and drip onto his face. "_Well then…" _the voice was much quieter this time, "_I guess we'll have to do this the hard way…"_

**The Next Chapter will be uploaded along with this one since I find prologues to be short and boring and the next chapter is also kind of an intro.**


	2. Chapter 1: Darkness Approaches

'_The crow feeds off the source's chaos. Thirsting for more. Never satisfied. Greed turned to envy. Envy to lust. Lust drives you mad. Seeds of madness bring forth destruction in their wake. Darkness sets in after destruction has passed. Darkness engulfs all. The crow is blind…'_

~Chapter 1: Darkness Approaches

_Where are you?…_

A pair of icy blue eyes snapped open at the sound of the voice and began to take in the surroundings. It was dark. Completely and utterly dark. The blue eyes looked around, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from, but only found more of the black abyss.

_I know you're here… come out so I can find you…_

The voice seemed to echo throughout this dark wasteland, sound bouncing of unseen objects. The body belonging to the glistening eyes began to move and turn around, searching for the body of the other figure that was stuck in this place with them. Fear began to take over the blue eyes as the head they were in snapped around, finding nothing no matter how hard it tried. The breath of the figure soon became short and staggered as they began to hyperventilate. They were lost, cold, and scared, wanting nothing more than to be from this nightmare.

_Where are you?... I need you…_

Blue eyes vanished behind eyelids as they quickly snapped shut, trying to block out this voice that was messing with their mind. Their body began to grow numb as an unnatural cold sensation took over the body. It froze the body in place, restricting all movements and preventing them from even shivering against this frosty feeling. They wanted it to stop, to go away. This had been the fifth time this week that this voice had called out to them and this time it was louder and more vivid then they had ever remembered. The cold sensation had gotten worse too. They just wanted whatever this was to leave them alone and go back to where it came from. Suddenly, the ice blue eyes snapped back open as it felt something cold and solid grab them around the waist.

… _Found you………_

~*~

It seemed to be just another normal day in Station Square. People were hastily walking around the city, taking care of their business without a care in the world of what was going on around them. Cars filled the street as traffic began to pile up. It was midday and rush hour was soon approaching. The sounds of engines running and horns blaring mixed in the air with the other natural sounds of the city. To some, this noise may bring upon a headache, but to the inhabitants of the city, this was normal and they were used to it.

Life in the big city was actually very dull and nothing exciting ever really seemed to happen. The only time anything interesting happened would be when that crazy scientist Dr. Eggman would try to destroy and claim the city with one of his crazy new robots that he was always inventing. He never succeeded though, as Sonic and his friends were always there to stop his plots and poke fun at the obese doctor along the way. But it had been a while since the mad genius had attacked so things were back to their boring, normal selves.

Even the blue hero had seemed to vanish recently. Sonic was known for running off and never staying in the same place for long, but even he could normally be seen running through the city at supersonic speeds or relaxing in the shade of some tree in the park. But lately it seemed that he had just vanished. Now this was fine with most of the people in the city. They didn't care where their blue hero was, as long as he came back to save them from impending doom every now and then.

This did however make a certain pink hedgehog very upset. It had been weeks since she had seen 'her Sonic' and Amy Rose was not very happy about it. She had been trying to locate him and wasn't having very good luck. The pink hedgehog had checked all of the places he was known to appear and a few places that only a select few knew about where the blue hedgehog would go to get away from the crowds. She had even gone visit Tails, hoping that the young fox would know where his best friend had taken off to. Tails had told her that Sonic had only said that he was going out and didn't know when he'd be back. This did not make Amy any happier and Tails tried to assure her that Sonic was fine and he'd be back soon.

So now Amy Rose was stuck by herself, walking along the busy streets of the city wondering when her hero would return. Her little red dress fluttered a little as a gentle breeze blew by. She looked up to the sky and saw the figure of Angel Island slowly approaching on the horizon. 'Maybe he'll come back once Angel Island is over the city.' She thought as she continued her stroll. 'He never would miss a chance to screw around with Knuckles.' She laughed to herself as she thought of the two of them. Sonic and Knuckles were always going at it, trying to see who could get on each others nerves the most. They were always pulling jokes and making fun of one another. It usually ended up with one of them getting angry, usually Knuckles, but they always got over it. Their friendship was just too strong. 'Maybe we could have a big party and get everyone together, just like old times.' She thought optimistically.

She hadn't really seen any of her friends in a while, not just Sonic. Knuckles was stuck on that floating island, only visiting when the island was close enough or if there was trouble. Tails was always busy working on some new invention to use against Eggman and was rarely seen outside of his workshop. Rouge was busy working for G.U.N. and running her nightclub, not to mention that she was also probably busy with her hobby of 'collecting' gems. Cream she had seen a few times, but not recently as the young bunny was busy taking care of her sick mother at home. And then there was Shadow. God, when was the last time she had seen that hedgehog? He never seemed to be around and was always vanishing once the fight was over. And no one ever seemed to know where he went. He'd just up and leave without even saying a word. 'Well I guess that's just how he is.' She told herself, already planning a big party in that pink head of hers. 'I'll figure out how to find him once it Angel Island gets closer.'

Red and white striped boots continued to hit the pavement with each step as Amy made her way back to her apartment. Deciding that it would be a good idea to get home early and start dinner, she made up her mind to take a shortcut through the park in the middle of the city. Quickly crossing the busy street, avoiding all the oncoming traffic, she entered the park and made her way through.

Amy looked around at her surroundings and was surprised to see that there weren't that many people in the park as there normally were. Lots of little kids could normally be seen running about and shouting while couples took ling walks and enjoyed a quaint little picnic. Today however, it was practically empty, with only a few other people making their way along the path. Amy ignored this fact, continuing her walk as dark clouds rolled in overhead. She turned her head upwards to the sky as she noticed the dimming of the light. 'But it was so nice a second ago.' The pink hedgehog frowned, "I hope it doesn't start raining before I get home.' Amy had no such luck as rain immediately began to come pouring down. The sky was now pitch black and the rain felt cold against the exposed places on her body and it pelted down from above. She took off in a full sprint, trying to reach her apartment before she came down with a cold.

As she slashed through the puddles that had quickly begun to appear on the ground, she felt uneasy. Something in the air didn't seem right. She couldn't put her finger on what it was, but something gave off a bad vibe. A sudden lightning bolt crashed through the sky, catching the soaked hedgehog off guard, sending her tumbling down face first in a puddle. "So much for remaining dry…" she muttered as she began to push herself back up. It was then Amy noticed something strange. The puddle she was resting in did not seem to be made of water at all. It was a dull grey color, giving off an eerie sheen as it reflected what little light made it through the clouds. It appeared to be to a thicker consistency too, almost like blood and was icy cold to the touch. Amy turned her head to the sky and watched as this odd substance continued to fall from the sky. Now she was officially creeped out. What the heck was going on?

But just as soon as this sudden storm had come, it began to fade. The harsh weather soon became nothing more than a light drizzle. Then after a few minutes, it stopped completely. Amy quickly stood up, trying to get as much of the strange rain off of her clothes. Feeling utterly dirty from being covered in this goo and wanting nothing more than a hot bath at the moment, she took off in the direction of her apartment.

Too bad she never made it. She was stopped in her tracks as the substance on the ground began to shift and move under her feet. It twisted and turned, creating a sickening noise as it began to take shape. Amy was frozen in fear as she watched these creatures form in front of her by the hundreds. The blobs of liquid turned into sickening forms. The formation of their bones could be seen through their dull gray skin that covered their demon like bodies. Though the skin had the appearance of a fluid, you could tell it was just as solid as the ground the stood upon. And though they were fairly small in size, each one no bigger than the pink hedgehog herself, you could tell they were dangerous by the razor sharp claws the had on their hands.

Soon, all of the creatures had formed, standing completely still as though they were dead. They didn't seem to be aware of anything, just standing there like statues. Amy, feeling brave at the moment, walked up close to a figure and stared at it. It didn't seem to acknowledge her, and if it did, it obviously didn't care, as it made no movement whatsoever. Amy was about to reach out and touch the closest demon to her when a voice from up above hissed a command.

"_Bring it to me!"_

The voice startled Amy, but not as much as the four blood red eyes snapping open on the figures around her. She let out a small scream as she fell backwards onto her rear. The demon turned to face her, red eyes piercing into her skull. Terrified and frightened, Amy did the only thing she could think of. She ran.

~*~

Alarms were going off inside the small workshop as Tails ran about from machine to machine, trying to assess the situation. As soon as this mysterious rain fell, its unique energy signal trigger an alarm in his lab. Tails had built this particular machine to track and monitor a specific kind of energy. It didn't go off very often, only when a large amount of this energy was in one place. It usually only went off when Eggman was up to one of his schemes again.

This time however, it caught the fox completely off guard. His light blue eyes were lit up by the ominous glow of the computer screen as he rapidly scanned over the data. This didn't make sense. He had never seen energy spikes like this before. How had all this energy suddenly appeared and where was it coming from? Swift as the fox he was, Tails began checking his program looking for any error that could explain this impossible event. But no matter how hard he tried, the screen still showed the same results. Chaos energy was radiating from the entire area of Station Square. It was as if there were thousands of Chaos Emeralds all going off at the same time within the city. And while each of these energy spikes may not have been as powerful as an actual emerald, there were so many of them that it didn't really seem to matter.

The young genius continued to frantically look over the data his computer was spewing out at him, madly typing into the keyboard like he held a grudge against it. Something wasn't right with this energy. Even though it appeared to have the same properties and wavelengths as chaos energy, something was still a little off. And Tails couldn't figure out what it was. His face became glue to the screen as he tried to come up wit a solution to this new problem. He ran every computer program he could think of, punching in numbers into complex equations. It's a shame that he was so engrossed in his work too. If he wasn't, he might have noticed that a group of charcoal demons was gathering around his workshop, being drawn in by the white chaos emerald that glowed brilliantly behind him.

~*~

She continued to run through the city streets, dodging the demons as best she could. That feat proved to be quite difficult, being that there were thousands of them and they were hidden in ever corner of the city. 'This is just like Black Arms all over again!' Amy thought as she bolted around the next corner, coming face to face with yet another demon. Its clawed hands reached out in an attempt to grab her. Amy responded by pulling out her Piko Piko hammer and wailing it into the creatures face. The creature was thrown into a near by wall, slumping down onto the ground. The attack didn't seem to faze the demon much as it slowly returned to an upright position.

"What's wrong with these stupid things!" The pink hedgehog cried out, whacking another demon in her path, "Why wont you stupid things just stay down!"

The demons really didn't seem to hear her, much less pay her any attention. They seemed distracted. They were all haphazardly roaming around town, attacking anyone or anything that stood in their way. Buildings were being taken down and people were being brutally attacked. Cars lay overturned in the streets while fire raged wherever they could burn. It almost seemed as if these things were searching for something, not giving a care to what happened to the surrounding area. What the heck were they doing?

'It doesn't matter what they're doing.' Amy told herself. 'I just need to get out of here.' Wielding her hammer in her hand, she rounded another corner, only to meet with a fairly large group of beasts. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped her weapon tighter. Fear could be seen dancing across her emerald eyes.

"SONIC!" her voice echoed throughout the city. "WHERE ARE YOU?"

**Not much is happening now. It will pick up more after a few more chapters I think. This is just the beginning. I will try to update as soon as possible, though I am not sure how long it will take me. I am very busy though (being a student) and I tend to be forgetful and have constant writer's block so please bear with me. It will be finished though. Chapter 2 is already done and will be out soon (need to proof read) and chapter 3 is already halfway complete.**


	3. Chapter 2: Heroes Rise Again

**Eh…..figured that I might as well post this before I go on my break and forget about it...**

'_Many fought to capture the source. All had failed. Only one could tame the source. One of pure mind and heart of gold. Of free spirit and free will. One who knew pain and the sorrows of life. Only one would come to stop the source. Only one would be a hero…'_

~Chapter 2: Heroes Rise Again

A gentle breeze blew across the grassy plain just outside the city limits. The grass waved and danced, following the rhythm of the wind. It was late in the evening. A sunset full of vibrant color was slowing making its way beneath the horizon.

"Man, I love this planet."

The hero of the world, Sonic the Hedgehog, was lying down in the grass enjoying the last minutes of daylight. He was on his back, head slightly propped up by his peach arms resting behind his head.

The blue hedgehog had just spent the past few months of his life roaming around, going from place to place on the planet. He had gone everywhere he could think of and seen so many different things. He always loved traveling, no being on to sit still and stay in the same place for long. Not when there were so many wonders in this world for him to see.

Emerald eyes closed has he let out a content sigh. Sonic had to admit, while he loved traveling the world, he was happy to be back in home. Sure he had seen every beauty nature had to offer, but nothing was better than good old Station Square. Everyone in the city was so nice and they accepted him and his friends with open arms.

Sonic's eyes opened once more as he looked back into the sunset, thinking of his friends. He wondered how everyone had been while he was away on his latest adventure. 'I'll have to stop in and say "Hi" to them when I get back into the city.' he thought to himself. 'Tails will be glad to see me. And Amy will probably strangle me to death with one of those hugs of hers.' Thinking of that brought out a chuckle from his throat as a smile grew on his peach muzzle. 'That girl never gives up…'

With the light slowly fading the blue furry turned and looked at the city on the horizon. Dark clouds were looming overtop his home. "Man I hate the rain…" he muttered to himself as he pushed up from his position on the ground. But as soon as Sonic got to his feet, a cold shiver went down his spine. Something was amiss and the blue hedgehog knew it. He turned his emerald orbs back to the city, eyes squinting as he took another glance at the clouds overhead. 'Something isn't right…' his mind was telling him. A look of determination set in on his face as he began to stretch his legs. "Looks like my vacation is over." And with one last look to the horizon, the speedy hedgehog dashed towards the city.

~*~

It was complete and utter chaos over at the headquarters of G.U.N. The recent outbreak of these strange and unknown demons had the entire building running around trying to get everything under control. Papers were flying everywhere and every computer screen was on, their users frantically searching away for answers that simply did not exist. Silence was something not heard as sirens wailed and higher up officials barked orders around at the poor lower ranked officers. However, all this seemed relaxed to what was going on behind the doors of the office of the Commander.

The Commander was an older man with what some would call a heart of stone. He had spent most of his life working for the Guardian Unit of Nations, working hard and earning his title as the Commander. He was always stern and strict, never hesitating and always getting right to the point. His presence demanded respect as soon as he entered any room and those who failed to respect him were met with dire consequences. He was not someone you wished to see angry.

Currently, the group of officers in his office was face to face with that angry expression. They had all barged in and bombarded him with questions, shoving papers to read and sign in his face and complaining about what was going on in the levels down below. Needless to say, once they saw the look on his face, they realized that they had made a mistake.

"GET OUT!" he yelled at the now terrified officers. His fists slammed into his desk, causing a few things to rattle about and fall helplessly to the floor. "I don't have time for all these petty things!"

Not wanting to face his wrath, the group quickly redrew from the Commander's threshold, a look of terror plastered on to their faces.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, the Commander slumped down into the mahogany chair behind his desk. Fingers were brought up to his head as he began to rub his temple. This whole mess was aggravating him. They had just dealt with the whole Black Arms mess a few months ago and they had just finished cleaning that catastrophe up. Not to mention that the devious doctor had decided to attack a few times too. He finally thought he could relax for a while, but no, some other hell bent creature had to destroy the city.

His migraine only worsened as the chimes of his PA system echoed though his head.

"What is it?" he questioned the person on the other end. You could hear the detest and aggravation in his voice.

"Uh sir?" The Commander's secretary was now having second thoughts about disturbing her boss. "Um, the agent you requested to see is here sir."

He closed his eyes as he sighed. "Very well, send them in."

There was no sound as the door opened, but the Commander knew that there was now another presence in the room.

"Hello Rouge." It sounded cold coming from his mouth. He reopened his eyes and was soon face to face with a very voluptuous anthropomorphic bat.

"Well, nice to see you too." A roll of her aqua eyes followed her sarcastic response. White gloved hands folded and crossed over her very busty chest, pushing them slightly upward. "And here I thought you had called me here 'cause you missed me."

The Commander's eyes narrowed at the comment as he folded his hands and rested his chin upon them. "This isn't the time for sarcasm Rouge. In case you haven't noticed, we have a very large situation on are hands."

The bat girl was now moving around the office, seeming to give more attention to the objects lying about rather than their conversation. "You mean those grey demon things?" Rouge's finger traced the spine of a book resting on a nearby shelf, quickly pulling it out before putting it back in its spot. "Its kind of hard to miss them with the entire city being destroyed by them, if you know what I mean. So what exactly do we know about them?"

"Absolutely nothing. We don't know what they are, where they come from, or what they even want. All we know is that they are extremely dangerous and are a threat to the city. Some of our informatives believe that they may be searching for something, but they haven't been able to confirm anything yet." The human stood up, eyes glaring at the Mobian in his office. "All I know is these things have to be stopped before any more destruction comes to the city."

"And what do you want me to do?" Rouge inquired, making her way across the room to the front of the desk. "You want me to check these things out and see what kind of information I can get?"

"Actually, no." He walked around his desk and stood next to Rouge. "We already have plenty of operatives working on that. I want you to go and check up on Eggman and see what he's up to."

"The Doctor?" Curiosity began to take over the bat. "What's he got to do with all this?"

"We don't know. This could all be part of some scheme of his or he could have absolutely nothing to do with this. We have a hunch though that he is up to something. We already know that he has acquired one of the chaos emeralds and he has not made any threats in a few weeks. We need to know if he has any connection to this or if he's planning an attack of his own. That's why we need you to infiltrate his base and see what he's up to. Is your mission clear agent?"

Rouge turned away from the Commander, pondering her response, as a smirk curled up around her lips. "What's in it for me if I decide to do this for you? I mean after all, I have more important things to do than to go spy on that old coot." She was probably the only person who though it was fun to aggravate the Commander. She got a kick out of seeing him pissed. It made working for G.U.N. all that much more fun.

A scowl appeared on the Commander's face as he listen to her give him that attitude. "You will do this _agent_ because it's you job. But I guess that if you so happen to come across that emerald while on your mission, I will allow you to keep it."

Shock clearly showed on Rouge's expression as she was taken back by his response. He was actually going to let her just keep a chaos emerald? He hated when anyone besides G.U.N. had an emerald in their possession, even if Sonic of his friends was using it to protect the city. 'Well, might as well take this offer since he's being so generous. A chaos emerald would be nice to have in my collection…' Her devious smile returned.

"All right sir," she said, placing her hands on her hips, "consider this mission as good as done." And with that, Rouge left the Commander's office just as quietly as she had entered.

Sighing once more, the head of G.U.N. returned to the chair behind his desk and sat down. He really didn't like trusting Rouge, or any of those animals as far as he was concerned. However, she was the only one who could find out what was going on right now. He just hoped he would get some answers out of this.

~*~

"Send out the E-5000 security drones immediately!"

The voice of Dr. Ivo Robotnik, or Eggman as most knew him, was barking out orders to any robot that seemed to cross his path. Things were not going well for the doctor at this current moment in time. He had been plotting his latest scheme for world dominations when his security alarm picked up a large mass of some sort closing in on his apparently not so secret hide out. At first he thought that is was those annoying G.U.N. units again. They were always meddling in his affairs. However when he pulled up a visual of the intruders on a large holographic screen, he realized that the situation was a little more dangerous than he had originally thought.

"What are these damn creatures?" he asked to no one in particular, watching a battle erupt outside between demon and machine. His efforts seemed futile in holding off the intruders. His robots were giving the creatures all they had, but they were gravely outnumbered. As soon as one demon was destroyed, another five respawned to take its place and ambush the machine. There seemed to be no end in sight and Eggman wasn't sure how much longer his forces would last.

The doctor's fist crashed down onto the control panel. "Damn these things! How can they be so resilient to my army? They're pushing my forces back way too quickly!"

Turning his back away from the screen, the madman began to ponder over this situation. In order to destroy this new enemy, he had to figure out what they were first. Then he could use his superior intellect to eliminate his problem. Eggman frowned as the cogs in his head continued to turn. He needed more information on these demons and he needed it now.

"Wait, that's it!" the obese doctor exclaimed. Waddling his way over to the opposite side of the room, he pushed a large red button as his voice boomed over the intercom. "Send out unit S-3-14 immediately!" A satisfied smirk crossed his face when he removed his finger from the button. He'd get is answers soon enough.

Unit S-3-14 was a machine he had designed while ago for surveillance duties. It was meant to be used to spy on Sonic and is pesky little friends, but he had never go the opportunity to test it out. It was practically invisible to the eye, designed to be as stealthy as possible while gathering information on its target. Equipped with the most delicate sensors, it could discover anything you wanted to know about its target from the patterns of its body movement, to infrared and x-ray scans, to its atomic composition along with the wavelengths and frequencies that its body's energy gave off. It was made to discover every little secret that you could possibly ever want to know. Guess with those mysterious black monsters roaming about, now was a good time to finally test the little machine out.

As the robot made its way out onto the battlefield, Eggman slowly brought up a large display screen on the main monitor in the room. It would take some time for his little creation to gather the data he required. He would have to be patient and wait.

~*~

Wind tore at Sonic's face as he made a mad dash for the city. He was used to the force of the cold air moving around him as he blazed around at supersonic speed. Though the pressure of the wind may seem rough to anyone else, he loved the way it forcefully rippled through his quills. It gave the blue hedgehog a rush, sending his adrenaline pumping through his veins and fueling him to only move faster.

By now the faint shadow of Station Square on the horizon had vanished and it was replaced by vague, but visible, outlines of the tall building that occupied the city. Sonic could pick out a few of the monumental buildings as he raced closer to his destination.

Sonic had noticed awhile back that as he came closer to the city, the sky grew darker and darker under the influence of the black clouds overhead. The darkness mixed with the normal lights that the city offered gave off an eerie glow. Smoke added to the picture making it look as though the apocalypse had stuck down upon them. Sonic pushed on hoping that he wasn't already too late.

But as his feet pushed against the ground, a high-pitched scream echoed through his ears causing him to immediately stop. 'What the heck was that?' The soles of his trademark red shoes skidded against the ground and brought up a cloud of dust trailing in his wake. The storm of earth bellowed past him as he came to a complete halt.

His blue furred ears were pointed in the direction of the scream, unsure if what he heard had been an illusion or not. He began to wonder if there was someone out there who needed his help. Being the hero that he was, he couldn't leave someone out there when he knew that something was wrong. Yet there was a whole city of people that he was sure needed him at this moment.

He hesitated again, his eyes traveling back and forth from Station Square to the forest on the horizon where the shout had originated. He hated making choices. The hedgehog was the kind of guy who just went with the flow, never thinking things though or debating anything. He knew he was wasting time right now as he thought over the situation, but for some reason, he just couldn't make up his mind.

Sonic was brought back to reality though when another ear piercing scream sounded. No longer debating, he took off in the direction of the scream, hoping that the city could wait just a little longer for his help.

~*~

It was all so very interesting.

The data that spilled across the back-lit screen was like nothing he'd ever seen before. Every reading that appeared was off the charts. How could these things carry so much energy in their deformed bodies? What was the source of this power?

Eggman's face was taken over by a mask of confusion. Though he had a gotten so much more data from these creatures than he originally though he would have, it still didn't seem to make much sense to him. According to the data, these demons were made out of pure energy. He could not find a single trace of any biological component in their entire form. And what was stranger was that this energy appeared to be pure chaos energy. Or at least that was what he though before taking a closer look at the readings.

At first glance, it appeared as though this energy signal had the same exact wavelength as that of the energy given off by the chaos emeralds. The Doctor found this highly illogical since there was no way that there could be that much chaos energy freely roaming about. Taking a second glance, he noticed a small difference in the wavelengths pattern. And a small difference is all it takes to turn one thing into something completely different. Running this newly found information into his supercomputer once again and comparing it to the data he had on chaos energy he discovered something quite extraordinary. It was true that these things had the same power as the chaos emeralds, but the nature of the energy was completely opposite. It was almost as if this was some kind of negative chaos energy, similar the energy that Chaos had collected from the emeralds when he had turned into Perfect Chaos.

Eggman stepped away from the monitor and took a seat in a large chair that occupied the center of the room. He rested his chin in his hands as he took some more time to think this through. Even if this was the same negative energy that slept within the emeralds, there still shouldn't be this much of it forming. It was almost as if it was reacting to something. Something that was calling it…

Eggman's eyes shot strait open as he suddenly though of o possible solution to this problem. He quickly got up from his chair and stormed out of the room and down the hall. "What if…" he pondered out loud to himself as he stopped in front of a large metal door, sealed shut for safety. He punched in a few numbers on a nearby keypad and the door shot open revealing a radiant cyan light. 'Bingo.' he thought as a smile overcame his face.

Due to the shear brilliance of the light it was hard to see what was inside of the room. Though if you looked closely enough, you could make out the small form of a chaos emerald from the center of the light. It was giving off so much energy that its force pushed Eggman away from it.

"It appears that they're answering the emerald's call…" the fat man said to no one in particular. He began to play with his mustache between his fingers. "This is all so interesting. Perhaps I can somehow use this to my advantage. There's a possibility that I could control these monsters if I am able to control the power of the emeralds. That would certainly make my plans of world domination go much smoother. But I don't think one emerald would be enough…"

With a devious plot in his head, Eggman left the emerald's chamber, making sure that the door was tightly sealed shut in order to protect his prize. He made his way towards the launch bay and proceeded to get into his Egg-Walker. He turned on the on-board emerald radar and was immediately met with a small melody of beeping. Perfect. There was an emerald very close to his current location and it appeared to be stationary. All he had to do was go and snatch it.

Eggman soon made his way out of the base and towards them emerald, stopping only first to gather a small battalion of machines to take with him and putting his base into security lock-down Alpha 10. He didn't want to risk being attacked by those demons on his little trip or allow them to get into his base while he was out. That was the last thing that needed to happen if his plan was going to succeed this time.

~*~

Sonic's feet could not move any faster than the speed they were going at right now. Everything around him was nothing but a blur as he pushed on towards the source of the screaming. He was swiftly making his was though the dense forest, still being able to dodge all the obstacles in his path even at supersonic speed. He had been running for a few minutes now and knew that he should reach whatever it was that was making the noise very soon.

After taking the next right around a large tree that stood in his way, the blue hedgehog found himself bursting out of the thicket of trees and into an open clearing. The clearing was a brilliant shade of green, spreading only a small distance before dissolving back into the darkness of the forest. Lying amongst the green however, was a small speck of white surrounded by a block of charcoal gray. Taking a closer look, Sonic was able to make out a general idea of what these creatures were.

The white spot appeared to be a petite female hedgehog. It was immediately clear that she was the source of the screams he had heard earlier, due to the fact that she was curled up on he ground and appeared to be being a attacked by the block of grey, which was about five weird looking creatures from what his emerald eyes could make out. She didn't appear to be hurt according to what Sonic could see, but he wasn't about to take the chance and let it happen.

"Oi!" the hero called out to them, making the demons quickly forget their prey and turn to this new threat. Twenty red glared back at him, but he didn't seem to care. "Don't you know it's not nice to attack a lady?" Sonic scratched under his nose with his finger before taking a fighting stance. "I guess I'm going to have to teach you a lesson, huh?" A smirk quickly graced his lips ad he took off at the demons in the blink of an eye.

**Chapter 3 will come… eventually. Its almost done, but I have too much work to do and don't know when it will get finished. Hopefully soon. Oh, and thanks to my first reviewer. Much appreciated! **


End file.
